Hellobee

Jackson turned two years old this weekend (how did that happen?!) and we had his birthday party on Saturday. Last year we kept the party very simple and theme-less, but this year we wanted to do something a little more fitting for him since he has such a big personality now and is a little more opinionated about things! We decided to go with a Sesame Street themed birthday since he’s obsessed with all things Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Abby.

I made most of the decorations myself on Canva and picked up everything else at Target – when it comes to birthday parties, I’m all about keeping it as simple as possible! Jackson was just excited to have all of his favorite people in his house at the same time, so he really didn’t care about the party itself. Although, I will say he was pretty thrilled when he saw the decorations for the first time. I put the decorations up a couple of days early (and they’re still up now!) so that we can enjoy them for longer – it feels like such a waste to me to only have them up for a day, so we try to enjoy them as long as possible before we take them down.

We only had one other toddler at the party so I didn’t have to worry much about entertainment – I had a slideshow going on the television of some of our favorite photos from the last year, we had a lot of snack food, and everyone just hung out and chatted! It was a super low-key party, and Jackson spent the whole time running around and being social with everyone who came. He was in heaven!

One thing I loved that we did differently this year was that we had the party mid-afternoon instead of at a meal time. Last year we served brunch, and it was a lot to coordinate. This year, I had the party at 3:00 so I really only needed to worry about snack and cake. We served some pulled pork sliders, chips and dip, fruit, and a few frozen appetizers from Trader Joes. Oh, and a cookie cake!

We also bought a little helium machine to fill up a bunch of balloons for the ceiling – they make a big impact for relatively cheap. The best part about having a ton of balloons, though, came the next morning – we had the party the day before his birthday, and when he woke up on his actual birthday there were balloons all over the floor everywhere. Some of them had even made it upstairs overnight! He was totally enthralled and it was an awesome birthday surprise to have dozens of balloons to play with all morning.

One fun new tradition I started was a little photo area in the kitchen – I made a backdrop with a ton of streamers and created some Sesame Street themed props for the kids to take pictures. It didn’t get used as much as I would have liked – I probably should have reminded our guests it was there! We did get a few cute photos with Jackson over there, though, so it was definitely worth it.

I’m no pro at throwing birthday parties (yet, at least) but with two under my belt I can definitely say that simple is the way to go. Both years so far I have put minimal pressure on myself to make the party anything fancy, and it’s been absolutely lovely. In the end, Jackson is just really excited to spend time with everyone and we are just excited to celebrate him, so everyone is happy!

Tell me about your kids’  birthday parties? Do you have any special traditions?